Christmas in China
I had a nice Christmas and enjoyed two whole days off! On Christmas Eve I had a very nice dinner at a western restaurant with my girlfriend and her son and niece. The kids are both in college and speak English fairly well. We had turkey, ham, beef steak, salmon and crab salad and a bit of wine. It cost about $65 U.S. for the 4 of us, which is a very expensive meal here. They had a special Christmas dinner menu and they were decorated for Christmas as many restaurants and most of the shops are. The restaurant was packed but I didn’t see any other foreigners. Christmas here is becoming more popular. Then on Christmas day we went to a friend’s house for dinner where 12 of us enjoyed goose and home cooked western foods. Dessert was English Christmas pudding with ice cream. The men were all westerners (2 Swiss, 2 UK, and 2 Americans) and the ladies were all Chinese. One of the Swiss guys was the host and chef. I have posted some pictures for your perusal. I took some Santa hats and small gifts to the office on Christmas Eve day and the ladies were very excited to wear them and have pictures taken. The only other man in the office that day also got into the spirit.
As I mentioned last time, I feel like I started to make some good progress at work. Recently I had a meeting with the accountants (3 of them) and my translator to plan what we needed to do to finish up the accounting for 2010 and what we needed to prepare for 2011. We went to dinner in the evening along with our HR person and my gf (also an accountant). I had two coupons for 40 rmb (about $6) off the price and had someone ask if we could use them to reduce the cost. The server said that we could only use one then one of the accountants suggested that she put some of the dishes on one bill and the rest on another bill so we could use both coupons. The rest of the group agreed and started arguing with the server about doing it. She went to get her supervisor who then had to listen to 6 of them all giving different reasons and ways to do it. After about 5 minutes of harassment she finally gave in and said okay. It was so funny to watch them all gang up on her; she never had a chance…..lol. There’s nothing more relentless than a group of Chinese beancounters out to save a few bucks! After dinner I took them bowling. At least 3 of the group had never been and they all had a great time. They suggested next time that we have a cheaper dinner and/or go bowling earlier when it’s cheaper. The dinner cost about $60 U.S. for the 7 of us and the bowling cost about $35 for 2 games for each of us.
Until next time……
Tags: 1
admin